“Dreaming God’s Dream:” New Stewardship Resources encourage congregations to be generous

The connection between faith and generosity have been deeply interconnected across religious traditions, with faith seen as the foundation for giving. The United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) stewardship teams hope to help congregations better make that connection with the 2025 Stewardship Materials that are now available for purchase. 

“We want to give our congregations options for their people to be as generous with the wider church as possible,” said the Rev. James Fouther, generosity officer for the Western Region of the country for the UCC. The Stewardship Materials contain resources such as pledge cards, bulletin inserts, devotional resources, and more to help churches facilitate a successful stewardship moment in their services, according to Fouther. 

“Dreaming God’s Dream”

The theme for the 2025 Stewardship Resources is “Dreaming God’s Dream,” which according to Fouther, “…accepts the idea that the dreams of humanity for our possibilities are limited, but when we dream God’s dream for our lives, our families, our churches, then possibilities become infinite.” 

“We hope to inspire folks to expand their understanding, their ideas around who God is, what God does, how God inspires humanity to achieve greater goals,” Fouther said.

Melissa St. Clair, the minister for faith and giving for the Disciples of Christ says the artwork for the cover was created by Adrian Sanchez, an incarcerated man at the California Institution for Men. The partnership is sponsored through a local UCC congregation that asked the participants to write an artists’ statement describing their work. Sanchez, who calls the piece “The Process of Life” said, “I believe our young ones begin life with innocent hearts. I have learned to do things without violence.” 

“We were asked to imagine what a city of compassion would look like and how the people there would cooperate so that everyone would have enough food,” Sanchez wrote. 

The artwork shows an illustration of an egg that hatches into a chick, and becomes a rooster, much in the same way “one would hear the spirit, where the spirit nudges us toward transformation,” St. Clair said. 

Generosity as a spiritual discipline

St. Clair says there are two ways in which churches can implement these resources into their worship services: the first, a way to fund a church budget, and secondly, believing that “generosity is a spiritual discipline, and we need to cultivate that in the life of our congregation.”

“Just as we would want our congregations to be cultivating more faithful prayers, exuberant worshipers, we want to encourage people to be more generous givers,” St. Clair said. “We know that giving deepens our relationship with God, and strengthens our sense of self, and we find that when this happens, the first purpose follows, which means we have more resources to do the ministry God is calling us to do.” 

St. Clair cited research from the National Study on Congregational Economic Practices showing that there’s a strong correlation between teaching and preaching generosity as a spiritual practice and increased giving. The study says congregations that teach on giving weekly, 90% reported financial growth, while those that teach giving monthly saw a 73% growth rate. 

“What we encourage congregations to do at the leadership level is to reflect on why generosity matters, and be able to articulate that for themselves, and then provide tools to coach others to share their testimony,” St. Clair said. 

What’s included? 

Available on UCC Resources, the package includes eight complete worship services, hymn suggestions, sermon starters from eight different authors, as well as sets for youth and children. 

The resources also include directions and suggestions for an effective campaign, worship and sermon starter materials, Faith Formation resources, and communication plans with letters.

For more information, or to purchase your 2025 Stewardship Theme materials, CLICK HERE. 

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